Abstract or Table of Contents

summary: for description and explanation of social inequality the researcher is first of all confronted with one problem: the exact measurement of the degree of inequality of the variable in question like income or education. in this paper differentindices of inequality, inequality of opportunities, and discrimination for metric and categorical data are discussed and some new measures are suggested. in order to illustrate the methodological problems on empirical data, consequences of the process of the increase in educational participation are analyzed. it is argued that mathematical instruments are useful tools for theory construction and measurement in the research field of social inequality. some objections against the application of mathematics to sociology are discussed in the introductory chapter.;